The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Baghdad:#1: The first bomb was hidden in a pile of trash that exploded about 5:50 a.m. near a group of day laborers drinking tea in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Amil, killing at least seven people and wounding 46, officials said.

Two car bombs exploded on streets where day laborers gathered in southwest Baghdad about 6:30 a.m., killing 18 and wounding 81.

#2: About 10 minutes later a car bomb targeted construction workers elsewhere in western Baghdad, killed another 10 people and wounded 35, according to police.

#3: Three bombs also exploded in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah shortly before 7 a.m., wounding a member of a government-backed paramilitary group, an army official said.

#4-5: Three other bombs later went off elsewhere in the city, wounding a total of 10 other people, police said.

#6: Sunday Explosive experts defused an adhesive bomb that was attached to the car of a Sahwa member in Doura neighborhood in south Baghdad.

#7: Sunday Around 2 p.m. gunmen killed a taxi driver and stole his car in Amil neighborhood in west Baghdad.

#8: Sunday Gunmen using pistols with silencers killed two Kurdish security members in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad around 2 p.m.

#9: Sunday Four civilians were injured by a roadside bomb in Mansour neighborhood in west Baghdad around 7 p.m.

#10: Sunday One member of the national police was injured by a roadside bomb that targeted his vehiclel in Doura neighborhood in south Bghadad around 8 p.m.

#11: A bomb attached to a minibus killed one civilian and wounded three in northwestern Baghdad, police said.

#12: A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 14 in the Saidiya district of southern Baghdad, police said.

#13: A roadside bomb targeting a traffic police vehicle wounded two policemen in the Ghadir district of east Baghdad, police said.

Diyala Prv:#1: Five policemen were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their patrol in central Baaquba district on Sunday, a local official security source said. “The IED went off on the main street in al-Tahreer area, central Baaquba, near a police patrol, leaving five, including an officer in the rank of captain, wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Hilla:#1: One driver was wounded on Monday in a sticky bomb explosion in central Hilla, a police source said. “A bomb, stuck to a transportation bus, went off Monday (Aug. 10) in the Hilla garage at the center of the city, injuring the driver and destroying the bus completely,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Tikrit:#1: A roadside bomb killed two children north of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Kirkuk:#1: One civilian has been kidnapped in front of his house in central Kirkuk City, according to a local source. “On Sunday evening, unknown gunmen clad in military uniform and driving a pick-up truck kidnapped a civilian in front of his house in al-Masla area near Abu Alok cemetery, downtown Kirkuk,” a source from the Joint Coordination Center told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Mosul:#1: a double truck bombing in Khazna village, just east of Mosul, home of the Shabak, a small Shiite ethnic group in the north with its own distinct language and beliefs. The two explosives-laden trucks went off nearly simultaneously and less than 500 yards (meters) apart, killing at least 26 people and wounding 138, said police and hospital officials.

The first attack took place about 4 a.m. in a Shiite neighborhood north of Mosul when two truck bombs exploded, killing and injuring 130, police said.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: Taliban militants armed with guns and rockets attacked a provincial government and police headquarters near the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, 10 days before nationwide elections, an official said. One Afghan policeman was killed in the attack on the compounds in Pul-i-Alam, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kabul, but other casualties could not be confirmed immediately, government officials said. "At 12:30 the governor's building came under rocket attack from close range," Din Mohammad Darwish, spokesman for Logar provincial government, told AFP by telephone. Gunfire could be heard in the background. The attackers were holed up in a multi-storey building from where they were exchanging fire with security forces, he said.

A half dozen Taliban fighters infiltrated a provincial capital just south of the Afghan capital on Monday and fired rocket-propelled grenades at government buildings, officials said. Two police and three attackers died in the violence.

#2: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-filled vehicle close to a NATO military convoy in northern Afghanistan Monday, killing himself, but causing no other casualties, police said. The attack in the centre of Kunduz city, the capital of the province of the same name, occurred Monday morning when NATO-led Belgian forces were passing through the area in a convoy, said Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, the provincial police chief.

#3: Rocket blasts have struck an airport in Afghanistan's western city of Heart, amid the worsening security situation in the volatile country. The blasts, which targeted the police and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the city, caused no casualties, provincial police spokesman Nurkhan Nikzad said on Monday.

#4: Pakistani attack helicopters and artillery pounded militant hideouts on Monday following clashes between rebels and security forces in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said. A group of up to 100 militants ambushed government security forces en route to Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the semi-autonomous tribal region of North Waziristan, which triggered a gunfight, local police said. "Five militants were killed and three soldiers sustained serious injuries in the clashes," police official Asmatullah Khan said. A senior security official in the area confirmed the incident.

#5: Six Taliban militants are dead after a roadside bomb they were planting exploded prematurely. Abdul Zarif, an Afghan official in Zabul province, says the six militants were planting the bomb around 3 a.m. Monday in the Naw Bahar district of Zabul when the bomb exploded.

#6: Four non-combatants sustained injuries as a roadside bomb struck a police van in Khost city the capital of Khost province in east Afghanistan Monday, a local official said. "It was around 11:30 a.m. local time when a police vehicle ran over a mine injuring four civilians including a child in the nearby of the site of incident," Director of provincial Health Department Amir Badshah Mangal told Xinhua.

Casualty Reports:

Marine Cpl. Kenny Bowen, who was badly burned in Afghanistan. He was injured when an improvised explosive device exploded. He is currently going through skin grafting, which prevents him from going outside.

British Private Matt Woollard, 20, had part of his leg blown off by a landmine. A member of 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, Pte Woollard's life was almost lost after stepping on a hidden anti-personnel mine while on patrol in southern Afghanistan in May 2007.